EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY - TOWARD A NEW VIEW OF HUMAN-NATURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIETY

Authors
Citation
N. Nicholson, EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY - TOWARD A NEW VIEW OF HUMAN-NATURE AND ORGANIZATIONAL SOCIETY, Human relations, 50(9), 1997, pp. 1053-1078
Citations number
102
Categorie Soggetti
Social, Sciences, Interdisciplinary
Journal title
ISSN journal
00187267
Volume
50
Issue
9
Year of publication
1997
Pages
1053 - 1078
Database
ISI
SICI code
0018-7267(1997)50:9<1053:EP-TAN>2.0.ZU;2-T
Abstract
The paper argues that evolutionary psychology offers a radical and cha llenging new perspective on human nature and organizational society. I ts roots in a convergence of insights and scientific discoveries from diverse natural and human sciences are described, and how it seeks to avoid common fallacies of earlier biological reasoning about human soc iety. Recurrent themes in human nature and their manifestations are su mmarized, including sex and personality differences, cognitive and aff ective biases, social orientations, and preferred modes of social exch ange. The paper concludes that we suffer the consequences of poor fit between our inherited natures and many of the constructed environments in organizational society, but that new emerging forms of organizatio n may present us with the opportunities for social relations closer to the ancestral paradigms of our psychology.